The NRVRC is in the process of updating the New River Valley Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) document for 2019-20. The CEDS provides a review of economic data and conditions for NRVRC jurisdictions, identifies goals and strategies that help to address these regional issues, and prioritizes regional economic development projects that the region can undertake to achieve these goals. The CEDS documents from previous years are available on our website: https://nrvrc.org/services/economy.
A key step in updating the CEDS each year is to reconvene the CEDS committee, a group of 25 volunteers who represent organizations around the New River Valley. The diverse committee has a broad understanding of the regional economy and a deep knowledge of specific issues that contribute to the region’s economic health. This year’s committee contains representatives with a variety of expertise, including finance, international trade, small business development and entrepreneurship, educational institutions (both K-12 and higher ed), technology, workforce development, and local government, among others.
The CEDS committee met several times this spring in order to provide input on the CEDS update process, helping to update the regional SWOT analysis that describes the region’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, updating the CEDS goals and strategies and brainstorming new project ideas to include in the CEDS project package. The full report that includes these revisions were submitted to EDA in June. The ‘consumer version’ of the CEDS, which provides a four-page summary of the CEDS, will be completed in early fall 2019.
For more information on the NRV CEDS update process, please contact Patrick O’Brien: pobrien@nrvrc.org, 540-639-9313 x206